7-Eleven confirms Perth expansion

7-Eleven Stores has confirmed that it is expanding into Western Australia, as foreshadowed last month by Business News.

The company said it planned to open 11 stores in WA over the coming year, including stand-alone convenience stores and fuel stores.

It plans to open as many as 75 stores over the next five years.

Business News understands the Melbourne-based business has spent about four months working on property acquisitions in Perth, including presentations to agents where it outlined its desire to buy or lease properties of between 150 and 200 square metres. 

The 7-Eleven board, which includes prominent Perth company director and iiNet chairman Michael Smith, is understood to have been presented with details of the Perth strategy at a meeting last month.

7-Eleven chief executive Warren Wilmot said the company had secured a number of sites and was looking for additional ones around the suburbs of Perth.

"We are primarily looking at fuel sites around 2,000 square metres, with retail space of around 180sqm," he told Business News.

"Non-fuel locations in high pedestrian traffic locations, rather than shopping centres, are also of interest.

"While our preference is to lease sites, for the right sites we’d consider buying."

Mr Wilmot said the company's decision to expand into WA was driven by the state's strong economic and population growth in recent years.

The company said its new stores would retain core offerings including Krispy Kreme donuts, Slurpee ranges, $1 coffees, and money transfer kiosks.

7-Eleven's entry into Perth this year will add to big changes in the retail market following the entry of the Masters hardware brand into WA and the planned launch of German supermarket group ALDI.

US-based supermarket group CostCo, which currently has five giant warehouse-style stores on the east coast, is also looking at the WA market.

7-Eleven operates 600 stores on the east coast of Australia and more than 52,000 stores in 18 countries across the world.